Electronic Device With Sensing Strip

ABSTRACT

An electronic device may have an elongated sensing strip. Control circuitry may use the sensing strip to gather air gesture input from the fingers or other body part of a user. The electronic device may have a housing. The housing may have portions such as upper and lower portions that rotate relative to each other about an axis. A hinge may be used to couple the upper and lower portions together. The sensing strip may extend parallel to the axis and may be located on the lower portion between keys on the lower portion and the axis or on the upper portion between the edge of a display in the upper portion and the axis. The sensing strip may have a one-dimensional array of sensor elements such as capacitive sensor elements, optical sensor elements, ultrasonic sensor elements, or radio-frequency sensor elements.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/390,505, filed Apr. 22, 2019, which claims the benefit of U.S.provisional patent application No. 62/727,675, filed Sep. 6, 2018, bothof which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in theirentireties.

FIELD

This relates generally to electronic devices, and, more particularly, toelectronic devices with sensors.

BACKGROUND

Electronic devices such as laptop computers and other electronic devicesinclude input devices such as keyboards, touch pads, and touch sensitivedisplays. Using these input devices, users can control the operation ofthe electronic devices.

It can be challenging to operate electronic devices using certain inputdevices. For example, some input devices may operate best when a user islooking directly at the device. This may cause the user to look awayfrom content that is currently being presented on a display and candisrupt a user's work flow.

SUMMARY

An electronic device may have an elongated sensing strip. Controlcircuitry in the electronic device may use the sensing strip to gatherair gesture input from the fingers of a user. The control circuitry maygather the air gesture input by using the sensing strip to monitormotion of the user's fingers while the user's fingers are not touchingthe sensing strip. Use of the sensing strip to provide input in this wayfacilitates efficient operation of the electronic device by the user.

The control circuitry can control any suitable operations in theelectronic device using the air gesture input. For example, the controlcircuitry can adjust operating modes, can launch applications, canselect on-screen options and perform associated tasks, or can performother operations based on air gesture input from a user's fingers.

The electronic device may have a housing. The housing may have portionssuch as upper and lower portions that rotate relative to each otherabout an axis. A hinge may be used to couple the upper and lowerportions together. The sensing strip may extend parallel to the axis andmay be located on the lower portion of the housing between keys on thelower portion of the housing and the axis or may be located on the upperportion of the housing between an edge of a display in the upper portionof the housing and the axis.

The sensing strip may have a one-dimensional array of sensor elementsextending parallel to the axis along an edge portion of the housing. Thesensing strip may be a capacitive sensing strip or may have opticalsensor elements, acoustic sensor elements, radio-frequency sensorelements, and/or other sensing circuitry.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an illustrative electronic device witha sensing strip in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative sensing stripbeing used to monitor a user's fingers in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a top view of the illustrative sensing strip of FIG. 2 inaccordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of illustrative operations associated with usinga device of the type shown in FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of an illustrative laptop computer inaccordance with an embodiment.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are cross-sectional side views of illustrative laptopcomputers in accordance with embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

To enhance the ability of a user to operate a laptop computer or otherelectronic device, the electronic device may be provided with a sensingstrip. The sensing strip may detect the presence of external objectssuch as a user's fingers. In some configurations, the sensing strip maydetect touch events associated with direct contact of a user's fingersor other external objects with the sensing strip. The sensing strip mayalso detect the presence of a user's fingers or other external objectswithout direct contact between the objects and the sensing strip. Forexample, air gestures above the sensing strip may be used to control theelectronic device.

An illustrative electronic device of the type that may be provided witha sensing strip is shown in FIG. 1. Electronic device 10 may be acomputing device such as a laptop computer, a computer monitorcontaining an embedded computer, a tablet computer, a cellulartelephone, a media player, or other handheld or portable electronicdevice, a smaller device such as a wrist-watch device, a pendant device,a headphone or earpiece device, a device embedded in eyeglasses or otherequipment worn on a user's head, or other wearable or miniature device,a television, a computer display that does not contain an embeddedcomputer, a gaming device, a navigation device, an embedded system suchas a system in which electronic equipment with a display is mounted in akiosk or automobile, equipment that implements the functionality of twoor more of these devices, or other electronic equipment. Illustrativeconfigurations in which a sensing strip such as an air gesture sensingstrip is incorporated into an electronic device such as a laptopcomputer may sometimes be described herein as an example.

As shown in FIG. 1, electronic device 10 may have control circuitry 16.Control circuitry 16 may include storage and processing circuitry forsupporting the operation of device 10. The storage and processingcircuitry may include storage such as hard disk drive storage,nonvolatile memory (e.g., flash memory or otherelectrically-programmable-read-only memory configured to form a solidstate drive), volatile memory (e.g., static or dynamicrandom-access-memory), etc. Processing circuitry in control circuitry 16may be used to control the operation of device 10. The processingcircuitry may be based on one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers,digital signal processors, baseband processors, power management units,audio chips, application specific integrated circuits, etc.

Input-output circuitry in device 10 such as input-output devices 12 maybe used to allow data to be supplied to device 10 and to allow data tobe provided from device 10 to external devices. Input-output devices 12may include buttons, joysticks, scrolling wheels, touch pads, key pads,keyboards, microphones, speakers, tone generators, vibrators and otherhaptic output devices, sensors with digital image sensors such asvisible light cameras and other sensors, light-emitting diodes and otherstatus indicators, data ports, etc. A user can control the operation ofdevice 10 by supplying commands through input-output devices 12 and mayreceive status information and other output from device 10 using theoutput resources of input-output devices 12.

Input-output devices 12 may include one or more displays such as display14. Display 14 may be an organic light-emitting diode display, a liquidcrystal display, or other display. Display 14 may be a touch screendisplay that includes a touch sensor for gathering touch input from auser or display 14 may be a touch insensitive display that is notsensitive to touch. A touch sensor for display 14 may be based on anarray of capacitive touch sensor electrodes, acoustic touch sensorstructures, resistive touch components, force-based touch sensorstructures, a light-based touch sensor, or other suitable touch sensorarrangements.

Input-output devices 12 may also include sensors 18. Sensors 18 mayinclude magnetic sensors, ambient light sensors, force sensors, pressuresensors, microphones, humidity sensors, gas sensors, accelerometers,gyroscopes, and/or other sensors. Sensors 18 may be used in gatheringinformation on the environment surrounding device 10 and may be used ingathering user input.

As shown in FIG. 1, sensors 18 may include sensing strip 20. Sensingstrip 20 may have an elongated strip shape. For example, sensing strip20 may include a set of sensor elements arranged along a longitudinalaxis to form a strip-shaped sensor. The sensing strip may measure thebehavior of nearby external objects. For example, the sensing strip maydetect contact between the external objects and the sensing strip and/ormay detect external objects that are in the vicinity of the sensingstrip without directly touching the sensing strip (e.g., when fingers orother objects hover over the sensing strip in particular locations ormove along the sensing strip). The external objects may be the fingersof a user and/or other external objects (e.g., a computer stylus, userbody parts other than the user's fingers, etc.). Illustrativeconfigurations in which the external objects being sensed are thefingers of a user are described herein as an example.

The sensing strip may be an elongated (strip-shaped) capacitive sensor(e.g., a capacitive sensor having a one-dimensional array of capacitivesensor electrodes for detecting finger touch events and/or finger airgestures) or may be based on other sensing technologies (e.g., opticalsensing, ultrasonic sensing, radio-frequency sensing, etc.).

A cross-sectional side view of a portion of device 10 of FIG. 2 thatincludes sensing strip 20 is shown in FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 2,sensing strip 20 may have an array of sensor elements (sensors) such assensor elements 20E supported by housing 24. Housing 24 may include oneor more walls or other support structures and may be formed from metal,polymer, glass, ceramic, crystalline material such as sapphire, fabric,natural materials such as wood, and/or other materials. If desired,haptic elements 26 may be incorporated into device 10. For example,haptic elements 26 may be overlapped by sensing strip 20 so that hapticfeedback may be provided to a user's fingers when a user's fingerscontact sensing strip 20. Elements 26 may be formed from piezoelectricelements, electromagnetic actuators (e.g., solenoids), and/or otherhaptic output devices. An optional display (e.g., a two-dimensionalarray of pixels 21) or other light-emitting elements (e.g.,light-emitting diodes) may be overlapped by sensor elements 20E (e.g.,to form a reconfigurable set of function keys associated with sensingstrip 20, etc.). In other configurations, pixels 21 may be omitted.

As shown in FIG. 2, sensor elements 20E may extend in a strip along thesurface of housing 24 (e.g., along horizontal dimension X).Two-dimensional sensor element arrangements (e.g., arrangements in whichsensor elements 20E also extend in the perpendicular Y dimension) may beused, if desired. For example, there may be two rows of elements 20E.This type of two-dimensional sensor may detect when lateral(Y-direction) finger motion is present that may be associated withinadvertent user input (e.g., user input that occurs by mistake when auser is typing on an adjacent keyboard). The use of a one-dimensionalsensor element array when forming sensing strip 20 may help reduce thesize and complexity of sensing strip 20.

Sensor elements 20E may be capacitive sensor electrodes in a capacitivesensor or other suitable sensor elements. As an example, sensor elements20E may be optical sensor elements that each include a light-emittingdiode, laser, or other light emitter (e.g., an infrared light-emittingdevice) and that include a light detector (e.g., an infraredphotodetector). The amount of emitted infrared light that is detected byan infrared photodetector after reflecting from an external object maybe used to measure the location of the external object (e.g., a finger)and thereby detect finger contact and/or finger air gestures. Anotherpossible arrangement involves using ultrasonic sound emitters andultrasonic sound detectors (e.g., microphones) to detect reflectedacoustic signals and thereby gather information on touch gestures and/orair gestures. If desired, finger touch and/or proximity measurements maybe gathered using radio-frequency sensor elements (radio-frequencyemitters and corresponding radio-frequency receivers). Other fingermonitoring sensors and/or combinations of these sensors may also be usedin forming sensing strip 20. Configurations for sensing strip 20 thatuse capacitive sensor elements 20E to detect finger contact and/orfinger proximity are sometimes described herein as an example.

With capacitive sensing, capacitive sensor signals gathered with strip20 may be used to determine whether a user's finger is touching sensingstrip 20 (see, e.g., illustrative finger 22) and/or whether a user'sfinger is in close proximity to sensing strip 20 (see, e.g.,illustrative finger 22′, which is located at a non-zero distance D fromstrip 20). With one illustrative configuration, sensor signals that areweak (e.g., that have a signal strength below a given threshold and thattherefore correspond to distant external objects such as objects at adistance D that is greater than a threshold distance Dth) can bediscarded and stronger signals can be processed to gather user input.For example, stronger sensor signals can be processed to determine thevalue of distance D for each finger (or other external object) that ispresent over sensing strip 20.

Using capacitive sensor elements 20E for touch sensing and/or capacitiveproximity sensing, the activity of one or more of the user's fingers canbe measured. Single-finger input may include single-finger taps andsurface swipes (touch gestures) and single finger air gestures (e.g., asingle-finger hover over a particular location, a single-finger swipealong the X axis of FIG. 2 while the finger is separated from thesurface of sensing strip 20 and therefore the surface of housing 24 by anon-zero distance D). Sensing strip 20 may also detect multi-fingerinput (e.g., multi-touch gestures in which two or more fingerssimultaneously provide touch input to sensing strip and multi-finger airgestures in which two or more fingers are sensed while these two or morefingers are present in proximity to sensing strip 20 without contactingthe surface of sensing strip 20).

FIG. 3 is a top view of capacitive sensing strip 20 showing how finger22 may move in direction Y to a position in which the finger is on orhovering above sensing strip 20 (see, e.g., illustrative movementdirection 30 and illustrative finger position 32 on or above sensingstrip 20 in a first location). When touching or hovering above sensingstrip 20 in a given location, the dwell time of the user's finger inthat location may be measured and this aspect of the user's fingermotion may be evaluated. For example, a highlight-and-select command mayinvolve placement of the user's finger in a particular location ofsensing strip 20 (e.g., to highlight a desired selectable on-screenoption on display 14) and subsequent dwelling of the user's finger inthat location for more than a predetermined amount of time (e.g., 1second) to serve as a “select” command for the highlighted option.During this highlight-and-select command, the user's finger may touchsensing strip 20 or may hover above sensing strip 20 (in which casedetection of the user's air gesture finger motion is performed using theproximity sensing capabilities of sensing strip 20).

In some user input scenarios, the user's finger (whether touchingsensing strip 20 or hovering above sensing strip 20) may move along thelength of sensing strip 20 (e.g., to adjust a volume slider or otheranalog on-screen option). This type of swiping motion (sometimesreferred to as a swipe gesture) is illustrated in movement of the user'sfinger from finger position 32 to finger position 36 in direction 38 ofFIG. 3. Non-contact gestures (sometimes referred to as three-dimensionalgestures or air gestures) may involve this type of lateral swipingmotion and/or may involve movement of one or more of the user's fingerin the vertical (Z) dimension away from or towards the surface ofhousing 24 that supports sensing strip 20. As an example, sensing strip20 can detect how rapidly a user's finger is moving towards strip 20 andcan use this information to implement a velocity sensitive virtual pianokey in a music application. As another example, haptic devices 26 at thelocation of a user's finger contact on sensing strip 20 can be triggeredin advance finger contact on the surface of sensing strip 20 based onknown information on the expected time at which a user's finger willcontact sensing strip 20 (e.g., using measured Z-axis finger positionand velocity information). In general, any dynamic finger activity (upand down movement in the Z dimension, lateral movement in the X and/or Ydimensions, etc.) can be used in controlling device 10. The foregoingexamples are illustrative.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of illustrative operations involved in usingsensing strip 20 and other input-output devices 12 to control electronicdevice 10. As shown in FIG. 4, control circuitry 16 may use sensingstrip 20 and other input-output devices to gather user input during theoperations of block 50. Sensing strip 20 may gather finger input fromone or more fingers of a user and/or may gather user input from acomputer stylus or other external objects. For example, sensing strip 20may measure the movement of the user's fingers and thereby determine thelocation, the velocity (speed and direction), acceleration, and otherattributes of the user's finger motion. These attributes may includemotions associated with touch gestures (functions, swipes, and othermovements of one or more fingers along the surface of sensing strip 20)and/or air gestures (e.g., three-dimensional gestures made in the airabove sensing strip 20 at a non-zero distance D).

Air gestures may include, for example, gestures in which a user places afinger or multiple fingers at one or more locations along sensing strip20 and holds the finger(s) at the desired location(s) for more than apredetermined amount of time (e.g., more than a dwell time threshold ofat least 0.3 s, at least 0.7 s, at least 1 s, at least 2 s, less than 5s, less than 3 s, or other suitable dwell time threshold). The dwelltime threshold may be adjusted by the user of device 10, if desired.Control circuitry 16 can discriminate between single finger dwellgestures (e.g., placement of a single finger at a given location alongsensing strip 20) and multi-finger dwell gestures (e.g., a gesture inwhich two different fingers are placed and held at two differentlocations along sensing strip 20).

Swiping motions with one or more fingers can also be used as airgestures. In some arrangements, movement in the X dimensional along thelongitudinal axis (length) of sensing strip 20 may be used to swipeicons or other on-screen content off of an area of display 14. In otherarrangements, movement in the X dimension may be used to adjust anon-screen control such as an analog-type slider button (e.g., an audiobalance control, an audio volume control, a display brightness slider, adisplay color cast slider, or other analog control). These controls canbe updated on display 14 in real time as air gestures information isbeing gathered. Air gestures involving swipes may also be used to turnpages in a book, to change channels or tracks in an media application,to advance between different pictures in a picture application, etc.

Velocity sensitive controls may be implemented by processing informationon the speed of finger movement and, if desired, information on thedirection of movement. For example, air gestures may include lateralswipe gestures, vertical swipe gestures, and/or gestures that involveboth vertical and/or horizontal movement through the air above sensingstrip 20 and control circuitry may use direction of movement and/orfinger speed in discriminating between inadvertent input (noise) andintentional gestures.

Some gestures detected by sensing strip 20 may include air movement andsensor contact. For example, a finger tap gesture may involvemeasurement of downward finger velocity as a user's finger strikessensing strip 20. This type of gesture may be evaluated whenimplementing speed-sensitive buttons. Finger removal speed may also begathered and used as gesture input.

In some arrangements, inadvertent touch events (direct contact with thesurface of sensing strip 20 or other inadvertent sensing strip activity)may occur while a user is operating device 10. Control circuitry 16 candistinguish between intended gestures and unintended sensing stripactivity by processing information on the movement of the user'sfingers. For example, control circuitry 16 can disregard inadvertentcontact with sensing strip 20 (any contact or particularly contactinvolving Y-dimension motion) when a user is involved with touch typingor other non-sensor input on device 10, can disregard input when morethan two fingers (or, if desired, more than a single finger) isinvolved, can disregard gestures that involve motion in unexpecteddirections (e.g., excessive Z-dimension or excessive Y-dimension motionsduring a lateral swiping air gesture, excessive motion in any one ormore dimensions during a dwell event, etc.).

During the operations of block 52, control circuitry 16 can takesuitable action based on the finger activity measured with sensing strip20 during block 50 and/or other user input provided by input-outputdevices 12. Control circuitry 16 may, for example, display content ondisplay 14, select icons and/or launch applications associated withdisplayed icons or other content on display 14, adjust operatingparameters in device 10 (e.g., audio volume, display brightness, etc.),adjust the operation mode of device 10 (e.g., by placing device 10 in alow-power sleep state, by turning on or off display 14, by turning on oroff wireless communications circuitry in circuitry 16, etc.), launch,cancel, pause, or resume applications and/or other software such asoperating system functions, send commands to external equipment (e.g.,wireless commands may be sent by wireless communications circuitry incircuitry 16 to adjust audio equipment, lighting, home heating,television operations, and/or to otherwise adjust the operations ofexternal equipment), and/or take other suitable action using user inputgathered from sensing strip 20.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of device 10 in an illustrativeconfiguration in which device 10 has portions that can be moved relativeto each other (e.g., a configuration in which device 10 is a laptopcomputer). As shown in FIG. 5, device 10 may have upper portion 10A andlower portion 10B. Upper portion 10A may include an upper housingportion of housing 24 that supports display 14. Lower portion 10B mayinclude a lower housing portion of housing 24 that supports atwo-dimensional touch sensor such as trackpad 60 and keyboard 62 with anarray of keyboard keys 64. Hinges 56 may be provided to allow upperportion 10A to rotate about rotational axis 54 in directions 58 relativeto lower portion 10B. Sensing strip 20 can be formed along the upperedge of lower portion 10B (e.g., in position 20′ extending along the Xaxis parallel to the adjacent upper edge of keyboard 62 and adjacent tothe upper edge of lower portion 10B of the housing of device 10) and/orsensing strip 20 can be formed along the lower edge of upper portion 10A(e.g., in position 20″ extending along the X axis parallel to theadjacent lower edge of display 14).

During operation, a user may place a finger over the sensing striplocated in sensing strip location 20′ (see, e.g., finger position 66′)or may place a finger over the sensing strip located in sensing striplocation 20′ (see, e.g., finger position 66″). The user may contact thesensing strip or may provide finger input in the form of an air gesture.For example, a user may provide air gesture input by placing a finger inposition 66′ or 66″ while hovering above the sensing strip at a non-zerodistance away for a given dwell time. In response to sensing the user'sfinger input, control circuitry 16 can take suitable action (see, e.g.,the operations of block 52). As an example, control circuitry 16 canpresent a set of selectable on-screen options 68 in a row along thelower edge of display 14 when finger input is received. When a userhovers above a given option, that option may be highlighted (see, e.g.,enlarged option 70 in the example of FIG. 5). In response to additionalhovering (e.g., for more than a predetermined dwell time) controlcircuitry 16 can perform an operation associated with option 70.

Options 68 (and selected option 70) may correspond to function keyoptions (default and/or customized), applications (e.g., a wordprocessing application, a spreadsheet application, an internet browser,etc.), operating system functions (e.g., instructions to adjust screenbrightness, etc.), and/or may correspond to other on-screen options. Ifdesired, finger gestures such as air gestures that are detected withsensing strip 20 can be used to adjust the operation of device 10 in theabsence of on-screen options. As an example, an air gesture may be usedto place device 10 in a low-power sleep state without displaying aselectable sleep state option on display 14.

If desired, other air gestures can be used in interacting with optionsof interest. The example of FIG. 5 in which finger hovering over aparticular location is used to highlight a desired option and in whichcontinued presence (dwell) over that location is used to activate thehighlighted option is illustrative. As an example, an option can beselected by a hover followed by a swipe, an air gesture with two (ormore) fingers can be used to select an option, or an air gesture such asan air gesture swipe may be used to move an on-screen object. Ifdesired, a hovering gesture may be used to highlight a desired optionfollowed by a tap or other touch event to select the highlighted option.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are cross-sectional side views of device 10. Theillustrative configuration of FIG. 6 shows how sensing strip 20 can belocated adjacent to the upper edge of keyboard 62 in lower portion 10Bor can be located adjacent to the lower edge of display 14 in upperportion 10A. In the example of FIG. 7, upper portion 10A includes bentledge portion 24′, which extends at a non-zero angle relative to therest of upper portion 10A. Ledge portion 24′ may, as an example, betilted outwardly at an angle of 3-20°, at least 5°, less than 25°, orother suitable angle from the plane of display 14 (as an example). Ifdesired, sensing strip 20 can be formed on ledge 24′, as shown byillustrative sensing strip location 20″ in FIG. 7.

As described above, one aspect of the present technology is thegathering and use of information such as sensor information. The presentdisclosure contemplates that in some instances, data may be gatheredthat includes personal information data that uniquely identifies or canbe used to contact or locate a specific person. Such personalinformation data can include demographic data, location-based data,telephone numbers, email addresses, twitter ID's, home addresses, dataor records relating to a user's health or level of fitness (e.g., vitalsigns measurements, medication information, exercise information), dateof birth, username, password, biometric information, or any otheridentifying or personal information.

The present disclosure recognizes that the use of such personalinformation, in the present technology, can be used to the benefit ofusers. For example, the personal information data can be used to delivertargeted content that is of greater interest to the user. Accordingly,use of such personal information data enables users to calculatedcontrol of the delivered content. Further, other uses for personalinformation data that benefit the user are also contemplated by thepresent disclosure. For instance, health and fitness data may be used toprovide insights into a user's general wellness, or may be used aspositive feedback to individuals using technology to pursue wellnessgoals.

The present disclosure contemplates that the entities responsible forthe collection, analysis, disclosure, transfer, storage, or other use ofsuch personal information data will comply with well-established privacypolicies and/or privacy practices. In particular, such entities shouldimplement and consistently use privacy policies and practices that aregenerally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmentalrequirements for maintaining personal information data private andsecure. Such policies should be easily accessible by users, and shouldbe updated as the collection and/or use of data changes. Personalinformation from users should be collected for legitimate and reasonableuses of the entity and not shared or sold outside of those legitimateuses. Further, such collection/sharing should occur after receiving theinformed consent of the users. Additionally, such entities shouldconsider taking any needed steps for safeguarding and securing access tosuch personal information data and ensuring that others with access tothe personal information data adhere to their privacy policies andprocedures. Further, such entities can subject themselves to evaluationby third parties to certify their adherence to widely accepted privacypolicies and practices. In addition, policies and practices should beadapted for the particular types of personal information data beingcollected and/or accessed and adapted to applicable laws and standards,including jurisdiction-specific considerations. For instance, in theUnited States, collection of or access to certain health data may begoverned by federal and/or state laws, such as the Health InsurancePortability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), whereas health data in othercountries may be subject to other regulations and policies and should behandled accordingly. Hence different privacy practices should bemaintained for different personal data types in each country.

Despite the foregoing, the present disclosure also contemplatesembodiments in which users selectively block the use of, or access to,personal information data. That is, the present disclosure contemplatesthat hardware and/or software elements can be provided to prevent orblock access to such personal information data. For example, the presenttechnology can be configured to allow users to select to “opt in” or“opt out” of participation in the collection of personal informationdata during registration for services or anytime thereafter. In anotherexample, users can select not to provide certain types of user data. Inyet another example, users can select to limit the length of timeuser-specific data is maintained. In addition to providing “opt in” and“opt out” options, the present disclosure contemplates providingnotifications relating to the access or use of personal information. Forinstance, a user may be notified upon downloading an application (“app”)that their personal information data will be accessed and then remindedagain just before personal information data is accessed by the app.

Moreover, it is the intent of the present disclosure that personalinformation data should be managed and handled in a way to minimizerisks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use. Risk can beminimized by limiting the collection of data and deleting data once itis no longer needed. In addition, and when applicable, including incertain health related applications, data de-identification can be usedto protect a user's privacy. De-identification may be facilitated, whenappropriate, by removing specific identifiers (e.g., date of birth,etc.), controlling the amount or specificity of data stored (e.g.,collecting location data at a city level rather than at an addresslevel), controlling how data is stored (e.g., aggregating data acrossusers), and/or other methods.

Therefore, although the present disclosure broadly covers use ofinformation that may include personal information data to implement oneor more various disclosed embodiments, the present disclosure alsocontemplates that the various embodiments can also be implementedwithout the need for accessing personal information data. That is, thevarious embodiments of the present technology are not renderedinoperable due to the lack of all or a portion of such personalinformation data.

The foregoing is merely illustrative and various modifications can bemade to the described embodiments. The foregoing embodiments may beimplemented individually or in any combination.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic device, comprising: a housinghaving first and second portions coupled by a hinge; a display supportedby the first portion; a keyboard supported by the second portion; asensing strip interposed between the display and the keyboard, whereinthe sensing strip comprises an array of sensors configured to detecttouch input on the sensing strip and three-dimensional air gesture inputin the air above the sensing strip; and control circuitry that adjustsdisplay content on the display based on output from the sensing strip.2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the array of sensorscomprises sensor elements selected from the group consisting of: opticalsensors, capacitive sensors, radio-frequency sensors, and ultrasonicsensors.
 3. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the touchinput comprises tap input and swipe input.
 4. The electronic devicedefined in claim 1 wherein the three-dimensional air gesture inputcomprises single-finger dwell gestures and multi-finger dwell gestures.5. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein thethree-dimensional air gesture input comprises swiping motions in the airabove the sensing strip.
 6. The electronic device defined in claim 1further comprising an additional display that overlaps sensing strip. 7.The electronic device defined in claim 6 wherein the additional displayis configured to display dynamic function keys.
 8. The electronic devicedefined in claim 1 further comprising an array of haptic output devicesoverlapping the sensing strip.
 9. The electronic device defined in claim1 wherein the display content comprises on-screen options and whereinthe control circuitry is configured to select a given one of theon-screen options based on the three-dimensional air gesture input. 10.The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the display comprises atouch-insensitive display.
 11. An electronic device, comprising: firstand second housing portions coupled by a hinge; a first display in thefirst housing portion; a keyboard in the second housing portion; asecond display in the second housing portion that is interposed betweenthe keyboard and the first display; and an array of sensors overlappingthe second display that is configured to detect touches on the seconddisplay and finger gestures in the air above the second display.
 12. Theelectronic device defined in claim 11 further comprising controlcircuitry that adjusts display content on the first display in responseto the finger gestures in the air above the second display.
 13. Theelectronic device defined in claim 12 wherein the finger gesturescomprise a finger swipe in the air above the second display and whereinthe display content comprises an on-screen slider button that moves inresponse to the finger swipe.
 14. The electronic device defined in claim11 wherein the array of sensors comprises a strip of sensor elements ofthe same type.
 15. The electronic device defined in claim 14 wherein thesensor elements are selected from the group consisting of: opticalsensors, capacitive sensors, radio-frequency sensors, and ultrasonicsensors.
 16. An electronic device, comprising: first and second housingportions coupled by a hinge; a display in the first housing portion; akeyboard in the second housing portion, wherein the keyboard has anupper edge that extends parallel to the hinge; a one-dimensional arrayof sensors interposed between the keyboard and the display that extendsparallel to the upper edge of the keyboard, wherein the one-dimensionalarray of sensors is configured to detect touch input and air gestureinput; and an array of haptic elements overlapping the one-dimensionalarray of sensors that is configured to provide haptic feedback inresponse to the touch input.
 17. The electronic device defined in claim16 wherein the one-dimensional array of sensors comprises sensorelements of the same type.
 18. The electronic device defined in claim 17wherein the sensor elements are selected from the group consisting of:optical sensors, capacitive sensors, radio-frequency sensors, andultrasonic sensors.
 19. The electronic device defined in claim 16further comprising control circuitry that adjusts display content on thedisplay based on the air gesture input.
 20. The electronic devicedefined in claim 19 wherein the control circuitry is configured tomeasure finger velocity using the one-dimensional array of sensors.